The goal of this lecture is to introduce students to wildlife issues and the pioneering efforts here at TCSVM regarding conservation medicine. We will discuss the various players addressing a special subset of wildlife problems and the role of veterinary medicine and veterinarians in such efforts.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, January 2003, “The ecology of infectious disease: Effects of host diversity and community composition on Lyme disease risk”

2. Reflection Journal Assignment

Due at beginning of next session

Looking Back
—Is ecosystem health a useful way to think about the relationship between animal diseases, human diseases, and ecological resilience?

Looking Forward
—This reflection assignment deals with the Session 6 topic, alternatives. What are three questions you’d like discussed regarding alternatives? Feel free to be hard-hitting here—if you find the alternatives issue to be “mere political correctness” or anti-scientific, focus on that. If you find talk of “refinement” or the like to be a sell out because you are an abolitionist and think the three Rs too tepid or moderate, focus on that. If you find something confusing, focus on that. Let’s push the limit a bit in discussion—the point of the assignment is to get your questions developed AHEAD OF TIME. I’ll use some of these questions during the discussion period.